The present invention generally relates to a lock mechanism for a hopper door, more particularly to improved, lever operated lock mechanisms which are mounted on both sides of railway hopper cars for closing, locking and opening adjacent double doors simultaneously.
Generally, railway hopper cars are constructed to be emptied through a plurality of adjacent double doors located on the underside of the car whereby the bulk of the contents within the hopper car may be discharged therefrom through said doors and into a collecting area located below the railway tracks. Usually, one of the double doors is accessible from the opposite side. Often, a spreader bar is added for joining adjacent double hopper doors to ensure that neither one of the doors will open until lock mechanisms provided on both of the outside hopper sheets are unlocked.
Previously well-known double door lock mechanisms include a pivotable hook that is actually a double hook in that it has one small recess which engages the rim of a bowl-shaped spreader extension to hold the doors in the "catch" position and one larger recess to permit the hook to drop into the spreader extension bowl and the door to move to a fully closed position. Two workmen generally work together from opposite sides of the hopper cars and swing the open adjacent double doors from the fully opened position to the "catch" position by pushing with one foot on the spreader bar extensions. In the "catch" position, the doors are open a few inches at their bottoms. Each man next places a long pry bar or lever bar, usually about 5 feet long and 11/4 inch in diameter, through a hole in a loop mounted on the door and into the spreader extension bowl. By pulling on the lever bar, each workman moves the spreader extension until the hook drops into the spreader extension bowl; and, if the lock mechanism is properly adjusted, the doors will then be fully closed. If the hook does not drop to the fully closed position, the workman hammers it there by using one end of his pry bar. Next, the workman moves a locking cam to the lock position and hammers it to the fully locked position with a hammer or an end of the pry bar. This type of locking cam arrangement has been found to fail on occasion when the entire hopper car is rotated for unloading.
To unlock this well-known type of prior art double door lock, a workman hammers the locking cam to the unlocked position and then pounds the hook upwards to release the door. Sometimes the hook stays up momentarily, permitting the door to move to the fully opened position. At other times, the hook drops in time to hold the door in the "catch" position, in which case, the workman hammers the hook upwards to release the door. The hook is operated primarily by gravity, making the operation thereof somewhat dependent upon the particular orientation of the hopper car and the freedom with which the hook pivots about its pivot pin.
Copending Adler U.S. Ser. No. 849,755, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,432, improves upon this known construction by providing a single-recess hook member that is both pivotable and slidable such that it pivots to properly locate the door as it moves from the fully opened position to the "catch" position or vice versa, while it also slides for movement between the "catch" position and the fully closed position.
The present invention, while being a significant and useful improvement over the previously well-known lock, operates in an over-all manner that is somewhat similar to it but more easily and more reliably used. The lock mechanism of this invention is less expensive than the lock mechanism of said copending Adler application and makes possible the application of leverage more directly upon the hopper door, thereby avoiding the need to hammer portions of the locking mechanism into place.
It is, therefore, a general object of the present invention to provide an improved levered hopper door lock mechanism.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved levered double door lock mechanism for double doors of a railway hopper car.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved double door hopper lock mechanism that applies leverage directly on the portions thereof that are most closely associated with the opening and closing operations.
Another object of this invention is an improved railway hopper door lock mechanism that operates in an over-all manner that is familiar to workers in the art, but more easily and reliably than the present widely-used and well-known locking device.
Another object of the present invention is an improved lever operated lock mechanism for use on double doors of hopper railway cars having members able to align with each other through holes in each whereby a locking bolt can be installed to semi-permanently lock the mechanism in its fully closed position.